From the May 24 – May 30, 2001 issue

Film

SIFF and Its Discontents

Satellites 2001's Alternate Festival Helps Put Life in Perspective

by Charles Mudede

If all art aspires to the condition of music, as the great 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once suggested, then all art festivals aspire to become the total universe. But they can't. This is not a fault of the festival as such, but of the humans who feed, maintain, and generate it into existence. They are limited by prejudices, politics, traditions, funding, and temporal and spatial realities. This is why the Seattle International Film Festival, despite its enormous size (over 250 films this year), is still not enough. Seattle needs even more films in the months of May and June.

The void that SIFF cannot find and fill is the space where Satellites dwells. Satellites is a festival of independent films presented by independent organizations (911 Media Arts, the Northwest Film Forum, Consolidated Works, Microcinema, SPACEBOAT TV, the Seattle Underground Film Festival, to name a few) at formal and informal locations like Linda's, the Little Theatre, the Speakeasy Cafe, and even EMP. "It's organized as a confluence of 'affinity groups,' much like the WTO protest groups," Peter Mitchell of 911 Media Arts points out. "While planning the festival, the different collectives have a chance to talk face to face and to organize strategically. Also, the loose structure and inclusiveness of Satellites gives it vigor."

Satellites' schedule directly parallels that of SIFF, from May 23 to June 14, and with good reason--the festival began as a critical response to SIFF and its inherent limitations. But instead of yammering on about how this or that important microfilm was neglected by the central organization, the founders of Satellites decided to do the most intelligent thing: launch a small but glittering film festival into the orbit of the biggest, best-beloved film saturnalia in the American galaxy.

"Choosing SIFF's season to do Satellites raises public consciousness of the breadth of film programs and events happening in Seattle at any given moment," says Deb Girdwood, executive director of the Northwest Film Forum. "Many people who come out for SIFF have no idea they might see cutting-edge foreign and U.S. feature films from the international festival circuit at the Grand Illusion most weeks of the year, or new experiments in media at the Speakeasy, 911, or at any of the Satellites, for that matter."

This is the fourth year of the festival and the organizers are more confident about its function and potential than ever, which is good news for SIFF and Seattle because a city should always offer more than one possibility: One bar, one lover, one strip club, one film festival can never be all we need.

Girdwood writes, "In Europe, a film festival sparks a whole city to participate and that's what we're doing here. Every year gets better, because we find that we gain more of a sense of each Satellite's forte and identity. It's very collaborative; different programmers or groups work together to put on these great events. That's where it's heading now, to more event-based programs celebrating the outer edges of filmmaking."

"For a town that goes cinema crazy for one month a year, this is a chance to present a space for other films that need to be seen," says Chris Chase, film curator of Consolidated Works. "I mean, SIFF has been around forever. Isn't it the longest-running film festival in America? It must be! And they will fill up their seats, so we are not really competing with them. We're just forming another opportunity in the really difficult business of getting films noticed around here."

Consolidated Works is screening Fucked in the Face, the only film I have seen in this festival, which, as Chase explains, coincides with the Cinema of Transgression series that opens at ConWorks next week. A few minutes into this film, and it's evident why it would never be shown at SIFF: It is raw--raw look, raw politics, and a raw plot, about a gay serial killer who is loved by a confused young man and despised by violent, penis-hating lesbians. Fucked in the Face is messy and honest, just like the festival that contains it.

"Satellites is not a celebration of rejects," says Deb Girdwood, "but a chance to show what happens in Seattle all year round. That is really what this is all about." Indeed, you can go to Independent Exposure or the Little Theatre or Consolidated Works at any time and watch much of the stuff that Satellites has to offer. It's just that during late May and early June, these bits and parts of microfilms and nonprofit organizations are suddenly arranged by the gravity of this massive planet we call SIFF.

Satellites 2001 runs May 23-June 14 at various local cinemas. Please refer to Film Shorts and Movie Times for full programming details.